9 Vietnamese Robusta samples secure Top 20 spots at Global Robusta Awards

12:16 09/10/2026

Vietnamese Robusta coffee earned 9/10 international entries in the Top 20 at the Global Robusta Awards 2026, with 6 winning samples contributed by members of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association.

At the 3rd Global Robusta Awards 2026, Viet Nam had nine samples ranked among the top 20 finalists. Of these, members of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association contributed 6 samples.

Specifically, Aeroco Coffee had 2 samples, Coffee Cherry had 2, 8Ro Coffee & Roaster had 1, and PM Coffee had 1. The Greater China Coffee Elite Alliance (GCEF) organized the competition.

To produce high-quality coffee, the proportion of ripe cherries at harvest must reach 98-100%, in line with the annual requirement set by Dak Lak Province. Photo: *Trung Tan.*

According to the organizers, this year’s competition features 50 high-quality Robusta samples, including 27 from China, 19 from Viet Nam, and four from other countries. Of the 19 Vietnamese samples, members of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association submitted 13.

The entries were selected from the 2025-2026 crop and had to be hand-picked at full ripeness and properly processed. The green beans had to be uniform, defect-free, and show no negative flavor attributes.

After the community evaluation round, experts, coffee professionals, and coffee enthusiasts tasted and scored the coffee samples through a network of more than 100 evaluation points. The cupping followed the Robusta technical standards of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) and the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI).

Ensuring coffee quality from harvesting through initial processing has helped samples from Dak Lak consistently achieve high scores. Pictured: the raw-material production area of Dak Lak September 2 Import-Export Company Limited (Simexco Dak Lak). Photo: *Trung Tan.*

The results come as Dak Lak remains one of Viet Nam’s major coffee-producing regions. According to the provincial Statistics Office, Dak Lak had 217,026 ha of coffee in 2025, including 202,435 ha of bearing area. Output was estimated at 582,113 tonnes, up 3.17% year on year.

The Dak Lak Provincial People’s Committee has identified coffee as one of the province’s key agricultural commodities, with the locality serving as a major coffee production and export hub in the country. The province is implementing measures for the 2025-2026 crop to increase productivity, quality, added value, and coffee growers’ incomes.

The public and expert evaluation rounds of the Global Robusta Awards 2026 took place from August 26 to September 27. According to the organizers’ schedule, they will announce the final results and awards in October.

Nationwide, Viet Nam’s coffee output reached approximately 2.116 million tonnes in 2025, up 5% from the previous year. The country currently has around 740,000 ha of coffee, with output of approximately 1.99 million tonnes. Major coffee-producing areas include Dak Lak, Lam Dong, Gia Lai, and Dak Nong.

Trung Tan